Basically trade means exchange of goods,
services, or both. Trade is also called commerce. The actual face of trade
was barter, which was the direct exchange of goods and services. Today
traders generally negotiate through a medium of exchange, like money, which
then makes buying separate from selling, or earning. The invention of money
has made trade simpler. Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade,
while trade between more than two traders is called multilateral trade.

Trade exists for many reasons. It can be due
to specialization and division of labor. Trade exists between regions because
different regions have a comparative advantage in the production of some
tradable commodity, or because different regions' size helps getting benefits
of mass production.

History of
Trade:

Trade originated in prehistoric times. It
was the main facility of prehistoric people, who bartered goods and services
from each other when modern money was never even thought of. Peter Watson
dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago.

Trade is believed to have taken place throughout
much of recorded human history. Materials used for the creation of jewelry
were traded with Egypt since 3000 BC. Long-distance trade routes first
appeared in the 3rd millennium BC, by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia when they
traded with the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley. Trading is greatly
important to the global economy. From the very beginning of Greek
civilization to the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, a
financially worthwhile trade brought valuable spice to Europe from the Far
East, including China.

The fall of the Roman Empire, and the
succeeding Dark Ages brought insecurity to Western Europe and a near end of
the trade network. However some trade did occur, the Radhanites were a
medieval group of Jewish merchants who traded between the Christians in
Europe and the Muslims of the Near East.

The Sogdians ruled the East-West trade route
known as the Silk Road from the end 4th century AD to the 8th century AD.

The Vikings and Varangians also traded from
the 8th to the 11th century as they sailed from and to Scandinavia. Vikings
sailed to Western Europe, while Varangians to Russia.

Vasco da Gama restarted the European Spice
trade in 1498. Earlier to his sailing around Africa, the flow of spice into
Europe was controlled by Islamic powers, especially Egypt. The spice trade
was of major economic importance and helped encourage the Age of Exploration.
Spices brought to Europe from distant lands were some of the most valuable
commodities for their weight, sometimes rivaling gold.

In the 16th century, Holland was the centre
of free trade, imposing no exchange controls, and advocating the free
movement of goods.

In 1776, Adam Smith published the paper
"An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations".
This paper criticized Mercantilism, and argued that economic specialization
could benefit nations just as much as firms. Since that time the division of
labor was restricted by the size of the market, he said that countries having
access to larger markets would be able to divide labor more efficiently and
thereby become more productive.

The Great Depression was a major economic
collapse that ran from 1929 to the late 1930s. There was a great setback in
trade and other economic indicators during this period.

The lack of free trade was considered by
many as a root cause of the depression. Only during the World War II the
recession ended in United States.

Until 1689, ballet in Russia was
nonexistent. The Tsarist control and isolationism in Russia allowed for
little influence from the West. It wasn't until the rise of Peter the Great that Russian society opened up
to the West. St. Petersburg was
erected to embrace the West and compete against Moscow’s isolationism. Peter
the Great created a new Russia which rivaled the society of the West with
magnificent courts and palaces. His vision was to challenge the west.
Classical ballet entered the realm of Russia not as entertainment, but as a
“standard of physical comportment to be emulated and internalized-an
idealized way of behaving. The aim was not to entertain the masses of
Russians, but to create a cultivated and new Russian people.

Empress Anna,
(1730 – 1740) was devoted to ostentatious amusements (balls, fireworks,
tableaux), and in the summer of 1734 ordered the appointment of Jean-Baptiste Landé as
dancing-master in the military academy she had founded in 1731 for sons of
the nobility. In 1738, he became ballet master and head of the new ballet
school, launching the advanced study of ballet in Russia, and winning the
patronage of elite families.

In the early 19th century, the theaters were
opened up to anyone who could afford a ticket. A seating section called a
rayok, or 'paradise gallery', consisted of simple wooden benches. This
allowed non-wealthy people access to the ballet, because tickets in this
section were inexpensive.

One author describes the Imperial ballet as
“unlike that of any other country in the world…the most prestigious of the
ballet troupes were those attached to the state-supported theatres. The
directors of these companies were personally appointed by the tsar, and all
the dancers were, in a sense, Imperial servants. In the theatre, the men in
the audience always remained standing until the tsar entered his box and, out
of respect, after the performance they remained in their places until he had
departed. Curtain calls were arranged according to a strict pattern: first,
the ballerina bowed to the tsar’s box, then to that of the theater director,
and finally to the general public.

Ethan
Kross, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, suggests that his recent
research shows that online social media use, rather than making us as users
feel inter-connected, contributes to overall life dis-satisfaction and
loneliness.

This
side-effect can have drastic results, considering over 1.1 billion users
around the world are linked up on Facebook alone.

The
study monitored 82 participants’ feelings and well-being, compared to their
social media use, over a long period of time. This kind of LONG TERM
comparative research was the first of its kind to be conducted.

The
main correlation result was: the more time spent on social media, the less
happy you will be over time.

A
separate study in 2010 conducted by Carnegie Mellon University discovered
that when users are DIRECTLY interacting with social media friends, such as
posting pictures and status updates, tagging photos, or liking things, their
sociability and well-being increased.

However,
the dangerous part of our social media use stems from the time we are
passively consuming social media content, which represents a majority of user
time spent on these platforms. This passive consumption of other peoples
idealized vacations, days off, meals, boyfriends, family, etc. led users to
feel lonely and unsatisfied with their own lives, despite how eschewed this
perception of others lives ACTUALLY is.

Thus,
social media has forced us to face a grave paradox: social media claims to be
the platform that can connect users with their friends, family, community and
the like within seconds, and this is true; however, never before have we
experienced more isolation than we are now as a result. Our obsession with
our digital social media lives is beginning to take precedence over our
physical, here-and-now lives, resulting in our inability to interact with
real people, and enjoy life’s current moments without being distracted by how
this will be portrayed on social media.

Receive
a lot ofpractice from his father. .... first
symphony at the age of four....notpopular...but
notinherited.

文章题目

Consumer advertisement

重复年份

20160305
20141002

题材

商业

题型

判断7+填空6

文章大意

消费者广告。过度广告会造成消费者对广告无感，有时候还会起到适得其反的作用。广告设计如何才有吸引力，更能有效宣传

参考阅读：
The report was published in Vietnam e-Business Index
(EBI) 2015 and made public at a recent press conference to introduce the
Vietnam Online Marketing Forum to be held late this August. The EBI 2015 was
based on a survey among 5,000 enterprises across the country, up nearly 50
percent, compared to 2014.
According to Nguyen Thanh Hung, chairman of the Vietnam e-Commerce
Association (VECOM), the EBI 2015 indicated that the number of e-commerce
transactions grew sharply against 2014 and transactions were diversified.
However, e-commerce businesses have yet to work out effective solutions to
win consumer confidence.
Tuan Ha, CEO of Vinalink said online marketing has seen a rapid increase. In
2015, to better serve customers, businesses invested more in applications for
e-commerce on mobile phones with a growth of 200 percent. Many online
marketing agencies have been used by sellers such as Facebook, Google, and
Over-The-Top (OTT) application.
According to a survey made by VECOM, government agencies and businesses (G2B)
have made significant progress. Some 26 percent of websites launched mobile
platforms last year. However, they lacked able human resources and did not
pay much for the e-commerce performance.
Under the survey, 95 percent of businesses used email in their business
activities. The ratio of businesses using email to make business contracts
has been growing in the last three years while the ratio of businesses using
email to advertise or introduce their products has been going down. It
clearly reflects a new trend in online advertising.

Some 53
percent of surveyed businesses said they spent below VND10 million (US$444)
on online marketing, or equivalent to 2014. It said 12 percent of surveyed
businesses spending more than VND50 million on online marketing.
The most popular marketing social channels are social networks, search
engines, e-newspapers and emails. Marketing through search engines has been
rated as the one with highest efficiency.
Some 30 percent of businesses said advertisements on search tools gained high
efficiency. It is 25 percent of advertisements on social networks. Only 14
percent of surveyed businesses said that advertisements on mobile phones
brought high efficiency, while 38 percent of surveyed businesses said
advertisements on mobile phones brought low efficiency.
This result was similar to the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey, Q1
2015. The report showed that Vietnamese consumers believed mostly in
advertisements on search engines. It is followed by social networking, online
videos, online banners, while the lowest ratio is on advertisements on mobile
devices.
Nguyen Trong Tho, CEO of iNet said Facebook video commercials have been very
effective for sellers and are better than image advertisements.
According to industry insiders, online marketing has an intimate relationship
with online shopping, but many Vietnamese firms do not pay their attention to
this. Some businesses have already used online marketing services but it has
seen low efficiency. On the other hand, Vietnamese businesses still largely
depend on a small number of providers for cross-border advertising services.
The local market share of online marketing is quite modest.
According to eMarketer, an independent market research company that provides
insights and trends related to digital marketing, media and commerce, the
global spending ratio for online marketing account is high, and this spending
is growing. In the Asia-Pacific region, this ratio was 32.3 percent in 2015
and it is estimated to increase by 36.3 percent in 2016.

EMarketer
predicts that this year, spending on online marketing will reach US$2.9
billion in Thailand, US$2.7 billion in Indonesia, and US$7 billion in India.
In the United States, online advertising will increase 15.4 percent this year
and will achieve sales revenue of more than US$68 billion, accounting for
32.6 percent of the entire advertising market
To spur online marketing, industry insiders said businesses need to pay much
attention to investment, strategy, and product. The success in online
marketing is to maintain connection with customers and sell products on their
e-commerce websites and social networks.